D&D 5E L&L Basic Dungeons & Dragons

[Thaumaturge]

I expected this and I still can't believe it. What phenomenal news!

Stop future quoting me.

At least without attribution.

I was just opening up this thread to type the above.

When I was just getting into RPGs, twenty plus years ago, I would peruse the RPG sections of toy stores, stumble across a cool looking adventure, take it home, and marvel at it. But I would, ultimately, be unable to play it. A twelve year old, a year from now, who stumbles across a D&D adventure won't have that same problem.

And that's so cool.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Kinak]

Hey! Free PDF of the only book I actually wanted!

There's a decent chance we still won't be interested, but at least I'll get to read it this way.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Plaguescarred]

What a great news! Making the entry point a free PDF will make access to the game easier than ever!!

I also like the fact that the PDF will be revisited with updates as the game evolve!!

 

[Thaumaturge]

I also like the fact that the PDF will be revisited with updates as the game evolve!!

Absolutely. If they keep Basic up-to-date and a ".5" update happens, people can get the free game and see most of the changes without having to lay out for the full 3 core books again. Very nice.

Keeping Basic updated also goes toward making the game feel like a living document as opposed to a cheap one-off dead-end.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Gundark]

Don't forget more traffic to their website means more Dungeon and Dragon subscriptions

 

[Klaus]

My guess for what will be in the Basic Set looks like this:
Races: human, elf (high), dwarf (mountain), halfling (stout)
Classes: fighter (warrior), cleric (war), Wizard (evoker) and Rogue (thief)

I'd guess cleric (life), instead of (war).

And I'd guess Ability Score Increases throughout all 20 levels (maybe even pre-selected).

 

[delericho]

Yeah you're right, you only said it'll make "the D&D RPG as a whole a loss-leader for the overall brand".

Yes, I did. But "loss-leader" != "failure".

Consider Amazon - their strategy for years has been to becoming the biggest guys around, and indeed have deliberately not made big profits as a side-effect of that strategy. Are their profits as big as they might otherwise be? No, of course not. Has their strategy failed? No - they did what they set out to do.

By the same token, if WotC are indeed using a multimedia strategy with D&D they might well calculate that the D&D RPG is both a necessary component of that but also the smallest component of that - with video games, movies, TV series, novels, etc etc being more important. In which case they may take the view that it is far more important to get lots of people playing D&D than it is to get them buying it.

Or I'm wrong. It happens.

 

[darjr]

Genious and checks a lot of the reasons an ogl and srd would

Also with the old ogl being more compatible leaves open the possibility to use it

 

[Hutchimus Prime]

Wow. Awesome. I wonder how much the success of the free to play Playtest helped drive this decision?

 

[mechascorpio]

Keeping Basic updated also goes toward making the game feel like a living document as opposed to a cheap one-off dead-end.

I just realized that the living document approach will forever have me procrastinating sending it off to the printer! I might have to make it an annual activity. Orrrrrr, just be happy to read it on my tablet, which would make some trees happy.